


Understanding

by Raynidreams



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 01:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/818288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raynidreams/pseuds/Raynidreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Initially posted at LJ in summer 2011.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understanding

Roslin opens the door looking both tired and weak and Ellen can't feel anything but concern for the woman who has come to mean so much to Bill in the last few years. Despite the situation and as ill as Laura looks, Ellen smiles; her slight dip of the head silently asking if she's okay to intrude. Laura's lips quicken into the semblance of a smile and then she nods, allowing the other woman in and gesturing to a chair.

Remembering every other time they've met, Ellen quells the intimidation she's been feeling about this meeting.  Remembering the times she's either been drunk, out of order, or later, been that frakkin' cylon who'd created the means to end the Colonies… so she takes a breath, aiming to calm herself, and then shakes off the apprehension to properly look at the other woman before her.

Roslin for her part watches Ellen with the wary countenance that comes from learning the hard way how people of a similar mind-set can be.  Drinks are offered and they talk with strained chatter about Saul, Bill and Lee - subjects not really suited to them as leaders but as a polite medium while they wait for the other to speak about the real reason for this visit. It's an awkward few minutes because neither woman has as of yet mentioned or  spoken about the real elephant in the room. Minutes pass and the silence descends with painful a intensity in which for the first time, they truly look at one another.  Ellen bites her lip and Laura looks away with a betraying touch to her head scarf.

And then, without warning and without pretence, Ellen comes up and wraps her arms around Laura tightly.

"I know what you're going through Laura. I do.  When I died on Earth… I'd already been given a death sentence… it's why we were working so hard… to find a way out."

Laura remains still and taut for a second, then she melts and sobs into the other woman's genuine sympathy.

Later, after closing the door behind her, Ellen is left feeling helpless.  Ellen had sensed how the woman formally in her arms had felt so alive, but also how she was equally shadowed with something inside that meant weeks from now, maybe even days, it would take her life. She was also torn in two about how there were no words of comfort for that. About how the warmth she'd given in that moment of sharing was all she could offer; and about that even as much as she'd known about how it felt when it was her, she could never know how it really felt to be someone else facing those final few steps into…

 


End file.
